Thursday, June 28, 2012

On "Magisterium": Who or What? UPDATED

One of the most misunderstood and misused words associated with the Church is the Latin term magisterium. If a quick survey of certain web sites is any indication, many people seem to think that magisterium is a "who": the Pope, for example, or the Pope and the world's bishops, or the Pope and the curia in Rome. Actually, this is not accurate. Magisterium, linguistically, is a neuter noun; it is a "what", not a "who." It is "the teaching authority of the Church." And, as we all know, "the Church" is more than its episcopal leadership. Let's consider a few basics.

The Holy Spirit is given to everyone at Baptism, and indeed, through all of the sacramental life of the Church. In the Middle Ages a distinction was introduced between the ecclesia docens (the teaching Church) and the ecclesia discens (the learning Church). However, of course, all of us participate, in a variety of degrees, in the one and the same teaching-and-learning Church. The role of the ordained is often highlighted. Vatican II spoke of the teaching role of bishops and presbyters as their primary obligation (the primum officium); subsequent documents have extended this as well to the renewed (permanent) diaconate as well. While one can sometimes read (usually in very derogatory terms) that others are claiming magisterial authority as well (consider some recent nasty blog posts about "the magisterium of the nuns" when criticizing the LCWR, for example), the medieval Church DID extend its understanding of magisterium beyond the bishops themselves. No less a theological giant than Thomas Aquinas in the 13th Century, wrote of the magisterium of university theologians; at the great Council of Trent in the 16th Century, and at Councils before that, the theological experts were often given a vote on conciliar texts! Trent, for example, referred to the theologians as minor theologians and the bishops as major theologians. Some votes included them all; some were restricted to the bishops alone.

UPDATE: After my initial post, I was doing some research on Blessed John XXIII's opening address o the world's bishops at the Second Vatican Council. I was struck by how he used the term magisterium, clearly using it the term accurately, and in the way we all used to use it until relatively recently. Look at how he introduces the term at the beginning of his address:

In calling this vast assembly of bishops, the latest and humble successor to the Prince of the Apostles who is addressing you intended to assert once again the magisterium, which is unfailing and perdures until the end of time, in order that this magisterium, taking into account the errors, requirements and opportunities of our time, might be presented in exceptional form to all people throughout the world.

Clearly, the pope is not referring to the college of bishops, with pope at the head of that college. Here's another wonderful example. The pope turns his attention to the previous 20 ecumenical (general) councils of the Church:

Ecumenical Councils, whenever they are
assembled, are a solemn celebration of the union of Christ and His Church, and
hence lead to the universal radiation of truth, to the proper guidance of
individuals in domestic and social life, to the strengthening of spiritual
energies for a perennial uplift toward real and everlasting goodness. The testimony of this extraordinary magisterium of the Church in the succeeding epochs of these twenty centuries of Christian history stands before us collected in numerous and imposing volumes, which are the sacred patrimony of our ecclesiastical archives, here in Rome and in the more noted libraries of the entire world.

Finally, consider this famous passage:

The substance of the ancient doctrine of the
deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another.
And it is the latter that must be taken into great consideration with patience
if necessary, everything being measured in the forms and proportions of a
magisterium which is predominantly pastoral in character.

"Good Pope John" (as the Italians still refer to him) shows us the proper understanding of this very complex term.

We are all expected to "follow the magisterium of the Church." But this means so much more than simple obedience to the institutional structure of the external Church! After all, bishops alone are not given full knowledge of all religious Truth simply by virtue of their ordination as bishops! Like everyone else, they too grow "in wisdom, age and grace." "Following the magisterium" is not some kind of loyalty test; it means being attuned to the full "teaching office" found within the entire People of God, great and small.

As Pope John XXIII uses the term, it seems that he is thinking of the doctrine which the Church presents even more than the teaching office by which it is presented.

But whether conceived as the teaching office itself or as the doctrine it proposes, the magisterium of the entire people of God cannot be divided against itself. To be authentic, any would be magisterial act cannot be in opposition to that of the "'authentic teachers' of the apostolic faith." CCC §888, quoting Lumen Gentium 25.

if we are to embrace this magisterium of all believers what happens to the unity, the characteristic "oneness" of the Church? What, exactly, is this magisterium teaching us? Does infallibility extend to this universal magisterium?

Actually, it reflects the very unity and communio you mention. Here's a quotation from the "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church" (Lumen gentium):

12. The holy people of God shares also in Christ's prophetic office; it spreads abroad a living witness to Him, especially by means of a life of faith and charity and by offering to God a sacrifice of praise, the tribute of lips which give praise to His name. The entire body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One,cannot err in matters of belief. They manifest this special property by means of the whole peoples' supernatural discernment in matters of faith when "from the Bishops down to the last of the lay faithful" they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals. That discernment in matters of faith is aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth."

but deacon, the section from LG presupposes (and explicitly mentions) "universal agreement in matters of faith an morals." I propose, and I think the evidence bears this out, that the lay faithful in particular are so radically diverse in their beliefs regarding faith and morals that no such agreement exists. However, this notion of a Magisterium of all believers, taken out of the context of this universal agreement, would seem to encourage and validate all manner of dissident agendas, undermining the very notion of a Magisterium regardless of where it resides.

I'm simply reporting the official teaching of the Church. I think it's important that we understand what the Church actually teaches about things -- like "Magisterium" -- and the ideals we are to strive for.

It also points out that there is greater diversity within the one faith than some people are ready to acknowledge. What do Christians universally profess? A good place to start is with the various Creeds themselves. Those are expressions that Christians have professed consistently from the very beginning up to the present.

With respect, I have to register a certain disagreement regarding your definition of "Magisterium" as it relates to "Church".

First, the term "magisterium" (as a common noun) means merely "teaching authority", and, second, when the term "Magisterium" (capitalized) is used in "Churchspeak" (Church documents etc.) I think it can be demonstrated that it refers specifically and usually only to a *particular* type of "teaching authority"--that belonging to the Apostles and their successors, the Bishops.

This is why there is not merely just one "magisterium" of the Church but there are *multiple* forms of "magisteria"--or teaching authorities.

As you point out, theologians have long be credited with holding a particular form of "teaching authority" (from which arises, for example, the "common teaching of theologians" in the Church as a distinct category of doctrinal certitude). Priests and deacons and lay catechists also have a certain "magisterium" or teaching authority when they teach publicly in the name of the Church. But this "authority" is not part of "the Magisterium of the Church" (capitalized and usually used in context as a term specifically referring to the authority of successors of the Apostles--and often amplified as "the *living* Magisterium of the Church")

Maybe there is a bit of conflation of the term "magisterium" with the term "sensus fidelium" in your post (e.g., re the Holy Spirit given to all at Baptism)? In any case, while the "Church" is indeed "more than its episcopal leadership," when the term "the Magisterium" is used, it most definitely refers to the *unique* and exclusive kind of "teaching authority" held only by the Apostles and their successors--an authority they and only they possess within the Church.

The 1990 document "On the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian" is a great resource for folks looking for more info...

Here is a quote from "Veritatis Splendor" (27) [in turn citing Dei Verbum 10] which I think illustrates the important distinction between "the" Magisterium and any/every other kind of teaching authority in the Church:

****In particular, as the Council affirms, "the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether in its written form or in that of Tradition, has been entrusted only to those charged with the Church's living Magisterium, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ".41 *****

I agree that there can be various senses in which "magisterium" may be understood, as I indicated originally. However, "magisterium" as a term has undergone a paradigmatic shift in meaning, especially in more recent post-conciliar writing. I simply wanted to remind folks of its more ancient and Traditional understanding: that of a teaching office in which all the baptized participate in a variety of modalities. I also acknowledged the special responsibility of the ordained, and in particular the bishops, in that teaching office.

I agree that the CDF document is very useful, but it doesn't rise to the same level of magisterial (teaching) authority of conciliar documents.

About Deacon Bill

After spending high school and college in Catholic seminary studying for the priesthood, I joined the US Navy and served for twenty-two years. My family and I lived in a variety of places around the world, and my duties involved service as a Hebrew linguist, a Russian linguist and other intelligence-related assignments. After retiring as a Commander in 1993, I have been working in a variety of ministries. I was ordained a deacon of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC in 1990 while still on active duty. As both a lay minister and now as a deacon, I have been involved in adult faith formation, jail and prison ministry, and youth ministry. Even before ordination I served as a parish life coordinator, under canon 517.2, for a small parish community in Maine while stationed at the Navy base in Winter Harbor, Maine. I have the BA (Philosophy) from St. Ambrose University, an MA (Education) from Pepperdine University, an MA (Pastoral Theology) from St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, and the Ph.D. (Theology) from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.